The activity involves development and implementation of a smartphone-based “ICTs for
demand-side of governance” (ICT4DSG) platform called ‘Taarifa’. This platform helps
citizens engage with their local governments in the monitoring and reporting of service delivery
issues which influence urban climate resilience. For example, through Taarifa citizens can seamlessly
report, geo-tag, and photograph garbage accumulation points which clog drainage systems. The tool can
also be used by citizens to report and record topography and population densities of their
communities, prevalence of water and sanitation infrastructure, etc., thereby enabling urban planners
gather real-time information for better planning. Taarifa has been successfully piloted in Uganda and
Zimbabwe.

In 2012, the World Bank, together with CHRA (a regional NGO), captured citizens’ voices through
the creation of dynamic, online mapping of a community within Harare, Zimbabwe. The tool applied was
Taarifa and the community was Mbare ward -a flood-prone informal neighborhood without access to
reliable public services and adequate infrastructure. The initiative emerged from government interest
in an active network of citizens to identify local priorities and monitor implementation progress. It
brought infrastructure issues much more quickly to the attention of local governments and enabled
authorities to better devise zoning and planning regulations for the Mbare ward. The resulting
open-source data set contains hundreds of points that locate drainage and sewage systems, roads,
clinics, trash dumps, water points, and more. Since local capacity now also exists within the NGO and
local government to replicate the work at low cost, this network will continue to collect and verify
data. As a result, the evolving map will continue to improve citizen feedback around public services
such as flood management, trash collection, sanitation services, etc.

Mitigation / Adaptation

Benefits

Potential for scaling-up and replication

The activity contributes to building the climate resilience of cities through increasing local
government’s capacity to effectively plan and respond to service delivery needs.

The activity helps to improve the public services such as flood management, trash collection,
sanitation services, etc.

The ICT tool (Taarifa) is based on open source code allowing for rapid deployment and
replication at no cost. As a result, the tool has already been piloted widely in Uganda and
Zimbabwe with further deployments underway in Senegal, Madagascar, Mozambique, and Liberia.